Fall Interactive Tour

An inside view at design agencies in Toronto

The morning was a hustle to make it to the GO train station in Oakville (memories of my many years of commuting to Toronto) to meet my fellow students—and on we went.

We were greeted with FTI tour guides— with color coded swag bags— already a great start and onto a tight schedule of visiting some of the top agencies in the city, all on foot. As advised, I wore walking shoes and left the heels at home— however all day I did suffer from a short complex...

First up, was Taxi. One of the top agencies in the world—a great opportunity to get a glimpse of the working behind the scenes as we were escorted into their contemporary kitchen meeting room. A well polished presentation was given about their work and Taxi "culture". Among the humorous and successful campaigns showcased was Viagara, Telus, Cheese, Bombardier, MSN and the list goes on. 

I was very impressed with the professionalism, award winning projects and contemporary work environment.



We then walked onto John Street. A very different environment– many levels, many stairs - no need for a stairmaster working here! A great place with open concept and people organized according to discipline more or less. 

I really liked their presentation showing the creative and strategic process for one of their clients— Infusion Teas by Tetley.  

The ideas behind the campaign and the process including the revisions to the original ideas were presented and then the end results of a commercial and an experiential event with personal shopping butlers. It was great to see the project unfold from start to finish the working parts and thoughts behind it. And we scored some Infusion samples as we left—I scored two. Blueberry is my favourite...so far— trying to switch out my diet coke habit...

We then went to Grip Limited.

We were greeted by one of the partners who gave us a tour. 

The agency space is huge with many areas of expertise including video editing and shooting. They really DO have a big orange slide–I was really hoping to go down it!! A little disappointed here...I hope to in the future....

A lot of capabilities in this shop. Great space. Great creative teams. Impressive clients paired with impressive work.

On from Grip we went to Derooted a smaller agency with big work. Their owner, Amir spoke to us about the company and their work.

Their work consists of branding, web design with facebook and twitter integration, event guerrilla campaigns, and photo and art gallery work

and very interesting interactive, and experiential lighting design that can be applied to surfaces including large buildings. A little out of the box and puts a whole new "light" on interactive design...




We visited ODDLY creative and were presented many multimedia, gaming projects that they have worked on. Fun projects like burger flipping, tire filling, mini golfing and skiing games. It seems they "play" for a living.

This entire event was the idea of Tim from Oddly who has very generously contributed his time and created this event to further students and their future of opportunities. Thank you Oddly!

THE TAXI: Its how we get there

Stephen Coomber — Interactive Designer at TAXI 

stephen@coomberville.com

Stephen Coomber 

from Taxi walked in our classroom at Sheridan in hoodie + jeans and seemed like anyone of us in the class that morning. But behind his laid back look — his design experience is anything but. Stephen has a wealth of experience and many creative campaigns behind him. He was generous enough to share his knowledge of the interactive world with the Sheridan post grad students.

Stephen graduated from the web design program at Sheridan and then started his career at Organic —a web-based company here in Toronto. He then moved to Y & R in Toronto a corporate giant and business driven agency. It was 9-5 but not as much creativity given to the designer. With already much experience, Stephen wanted a position that he could use his creativity and Taxi was definitely this—with many awards on their shelves for successful creative campaigns. However, with creativity comes rewards but also entails long hours. Stephen then proceeded to give us a presentation “A Day at Taxi – Enjoy the Ride!”

Stephen’s overview of Taxi gave us a glimpse on a everyday projects and environment. Cool projects like travelling to NYC staying in the Tribeca Grand (my personal favourite when I visit - personal white noise in your room to a great "perfect 10 martini" down at the bar ...ok I had to add that in!) Stephen did a video shoot in NYC among other projects using green screens, actors throwing lightning bolts and video editing—all very cool—to working on a top secret House makeover site for Canadian Tire here in Scarborough.

Taxi has a creative environment—but it is not open concept. There are open spaces but many designers have their own small offices with walls—which Stephen prefers—so he can "hunker down and work". The teams do meet together in open spaces in the office with information architects, web developers, designers with a plethora of Timmy's coffee and donuts to get the creative juices flowing. However, after all the meetings and briefings, Stephen only starts to work on the mac around 4:00pm so you can imagine there are many late nights.

Stephen shared that as many of us know there is many social events and networking is key to meeting peers in your field. He also gave us some invaluable and straight forward advice.

FIND A MENTOR

They know your new job better than you.

And you will want to return the favour and pay forward.

NEVER TAKE A SHOTGUN

Always sit in the drivers seat and take control of your career.

LEARN & NETWORK

Go to seminars and learn the latest....

and meet industry people (sometimes this may be after hours in a bar singing karaoke)

TWEET

Let them tell you
@mashable, @theNextWeb, @taxiCanada

DRINK BEER

The creative industry is very much a social scene...
connections often happen after hours.

I appreciated this advice –– but since I am not a beer drinker—I personally will substitute a martini or on the healthy side of things a coconut water... 

“Don’t take yourself too seriously — Be passionate and have fun”
Stephen Coomber       

Taxi is renowned for winning award after award for brilliant creative and won Agency of the Decade in Canada. As a creative, it sounds like the place to be.